Document-sharing conferencing system

ABSTRACT

In various examples, a computerized method for document-sharing conferencing is described. The method may include steps such as acquiring and saving an electronic document. The method may include receiving an active event indication and instructing the electronic document to be displayed on one or more displays during an active event. The method may further include receiving an active layer for the electronic document and instructing the active layer to be displayed on the electronic document during the active event. The method may also include saving the active layer with the electronic document.

BACKGROUND

Increasing technology has made fully or partially remote meetings andother proceedings more common. Video conferencing systems allow forfully or partially remote interactions, discussions, and the like. Thevideo conferencing system provides a video feed of two or moreparticipants. While video conferencing systems have existed, thesesystems lack a full integration with electronic documents that may beused and/or referenced as part of the proceeding. These systemstypically only integrate documents through screen sharing and/or filesending, which is insufficient for numerous proceedings.

In an example legal field, various proceedings may be held remotelyand/or utilize digital documents. Example proceedings may include acourt hearing, a trial, a deposition, and an arbitration. Theseproceedings have largely relied upon paper documents, but this isdisadvantageous for several reasons. First, paper documents are noteasily presented to a finder of fact (such as a judge or jury). Second,paper documents are difficult to certify and verify, as numerouspotentially different versions of the document may be present. Third, alarge portion of documents are created and stored electronically,forcing numerous printings and/or physical copies to be created. This isintensive in time, cost, and other resources. Fourth, paper copiespresent few or no customization options to a presenter of the document.Fifth, paper copies may become lost or destroyed, which is counter toretention needs of the proceeding.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a document-sharingconference system that overcomes at least some of the above-discussedproblems with existing video conferencing systems. Systems and methodsare disclosed herein that provide advanced document management,customization, sharing, and retention. For example, and in contrast toconventional systems, such as those described above, systems and methodsof the present disclosure provide electronic documents that are easilypresentable to a finder of fact or other participant, are certifiedand/or verified, stored electronically, customizable, and retainable.

A first example embodiment of the invention is directed to acomputerized method for document-sharing conferencing as performed by aserver. The method may include steps such as acquiring and saving anelectronic document. The method may include receiving an active eventindication and instructing the electronic document to be displayed onone or more displays during an active event. The method may furtherinclude receiving an active layer for the electronic document andinstructing the active layer to be displayed on the electronic documentduring the active event. The method may also include saving the activelayer with the electronic document.

A second example embodiment of the invention is directed to acomputerized method for document-sharing conferencing as performed by auser device. The method may include receiving a user copy of anelectronic document from a server. The method may include displaying thefirst user copy on a display and receiving, via an input, acustomization of the electronic document from the user. The method mayfurther include displaying a video conference along with the electronicdocument and the customization. The method may further include sendingthe customization to a server such that the server may distribute thecustomization to one or more participants. A local copy may be storedalong with the customization.

A third example embodiment of the invention is directed to a system fordocument-sharing conferencing. The system may include a server and atleast one user device. The server may include a non-transitory computerreadable storage medium having a computer program stored thereon which,when executed by a server processor, instructs the server processor toperform the steps discussed above. The at least one user device mayinclude a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having acomputer program stored thereon which, when executed by a user deviceprocessor, instruct the user device processor to perform the stepsdiscussed above.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present systems and methods for document-sharing conferencing aredescribed in detail below with reference to the attached drawingfigures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an example document-sharing conference system, suitable foruse in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrate example documents and accompanying layers that may beimplemented in some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing a method of document-sharingconferencing, suitable for use in implementing some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIGS. 4A-D illustrate example graphical user interfaces, suitable foruse in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example content streaming systemsuitable for use in implementing some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example computing device suitable foruse in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an example data center suitable for use inimplementing some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are disclosed related to document retention,encryption, customization, and/or presentation for video conferencingand live presentation. Although primarily described herein with respectto video conference implementations, this is not intended to belimiting, and the systems and methods of the present disclosure may beimplemented in any implementation for electronic documents. Fornon-limiting examples, the systems and methods described herein may beimplemented for general document retention, collaborative documentcreation and editing, virtual learning applications, social mediacontent sharing applications, video sharing applications, and/or otherapplication types where electronic documents may be utilized.

Example Document-Sharing Conference System

With reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is an example document-sharingconference system 100 (alternatively referred to herein as “system100”), in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Itshould be understood that this and other arrangements described hereinare set forth only as examples. Other arrangements and elements (e.g.,machines, interfaces, functions, orders, groupings of functions, etc.)may be used in addition to or instead of those shown, and some elementsmay be omitted altogether. Further, many of the elements describedherein are functional entities that may be implemented as discrete ordistributed components or in conjunction with other components, and inany suitable combination and location. Various functions describedherein as being performed by entities may be carried out by hardware,firmware, and/or software. For instance, various functions may becarried out by a processor executing instructions stored in memory. Insome embodiments, the system 100 may include similar components,features, and/or functionality to those of example content streamingsystem 500 of FIG. 5, example computing device 600 of FIG. 6, and/orexample data center 700 of FIG. 7.

The document-sharing conference system 100 may include, among otherthings, client devices 102A and 102B (referred to collectively herein as“client devices 102”) and an application server 104. Although the clientdevices 102A and 102B are illustrated in FIG. 1, this is not intended tobe limiting. In any example, there may be any number (e.g., one or more)of client devices 102. Components of the document-sharing conferencesystem 100 may communicate over network(s) 106. The network(s) mayinclude a wide area network (WAN) (e.g., the Internet, a public switchedtelephone network (PSTN), etc.), a local area network (LAN) (e.g.,Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Ethernet,Ultra-Wideband (UWB), etc.), a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN)(e.g., LoRaWAN, Sigfox, etc.), a global navigation satellite system(GNSS) network (e.g., the Global Positioning System (GPS)), and/oranother network type. In any example, each of the components of thedocument-sharing conference system 100 may communicate with one or moreof the other components via one or more of the network(s) 106.

The client devices 102 may include a smart phone, a laptop computer, atablet computer, a desktop computer, a wearable device, a game console,a virtual/augmented/mixed reality system (e.g., a headset, a computer, agame console, remote(s), controller(s), and/or other components), astreaming device, a smart-home device that may include an intelligentpersonal assistant, another type of device capable of supporting videoconferencing or other applications types (e.g., gameplay, video chat,customer service chat, etc.), and/or a combination thereof.

The client devices 102A/102B may include a client application 108A/108B,a display 110A/110B, a communication interface 112A/112B, an inputdevice(s) 114A/114B, and/or local storage 116A/116B. Although only a fewcomponents and/or features of the client devices 102 are illustrated inFIG. 1, this is not intended to be limiting. For example, the clientdevices 102 may include additional or alternative components, such asthose described below with respect to FIGS. 6 and/or 7.

The client application 108A and 108B (referred to collectively herein as“client applications 108”) may include a mobile application, a computerapplication, a console application, and/or another type of application.The client applications 108 may include instructions that, when executedby a processor(s), cause the processor(s) to, without limitation,receive input data representative of user inputs to the one or moreinput device(s) 114, transmit the input data to the applicationserver(s) 104, retrieve application data from memory or local storage116, receive the application data using the communication interfaces 112from the application server(s) 104, and cause display of the applicationon the display 110. For example, the client application 108 may operateas a facilitator for enabling streaming of a video conferencing sessionassociated with the client application on the client devices 102. Theclient application 108 may also include instructions that, when executedby a processor(s), cause the processor(s) to transmit data to, andreceive data from, the application server(s) 104. For example, theclient application 108A may transmit to the application server(s) 104real-time feedback regarding document manipulations and/orcustomizations performed on the client application 108A, and receivefrom the application servers(s) 104 real-time feedback regardingdocument manipulations and/or customizations performed on the clientapplication 108B. In other examples, the client application 108A maytransmit to the application server(s) 104 session data (e.g.,attenuation data, a list of users, time of day, meeting topic, and/orother contextual data) from any number of application sessions. In suchexamples, the host application 118 may generate (e.g., by a machinelearning model, a deep neural network (DNN), or another algorithm type)typical user behavior predictions for a given context.

The displays 110A and 110B (referred to collectively herein as “displays110”) may include any type of display capable of displaying theapplication (e.g., a light-emitting diode display (LED), an organic LEDdisplay (OLED), a liquid crystal display (LCD), an active matrix OLEDdisplay (AMOLED), a quantum dot display (QDD), a plasma display, anLED/LCD display, and/or another type of display). In some examples, thedisplays 110 may include more than one display (e.g., a dual-monitordisplay for a computer). In some examples, the display is a touch-screendisplay, such as a touch-screen of a smart phone, tablet computer,laptop computer, or the like, where the touch-screen is at least one ofthe input device(s) 114 of the client devices 102.

The input device(s) 114A and 114B (referred to collectively herein as“input device(s) 114”) may include any type of devices that are capableof providing user inputs to the application. The input device(s) mayinclude a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone(s), a touch-screen display, acontroller(s), a remote(s), a headset (e.g., sensors of avirtual/augmented/mixed reality headset), and/or other types of inputdevices.

The communication interface 112A, 112B, 112C (referred to collectivelyherein as “communication interfaces 112”) may include one or morecomponents and features for communicating across one or more networks,such as the network(s) 106. The communication interfaces 112 may beconfigured to communicate via any number of network(s) 106, describedherein. For example, to communicate in the document-sharing conferencesystem 100 of FIG. 1, the client devices 102 may use an Ethernet orWi-Fi connection through a router to access the Internet in order tocommunicate with the application server(s) 104 and/or with other clientdevices 102. The communication interfaces 112 may also send documents,portions of documents, layers for documents, metadata related todocuments, and other information related to one or more documents to beshared or otherwise utilized during an active event.

The local storage 116A and 116B (referred to collectively herein as“local storage 116”) may include any of a variety of computer-readablemedia. The computer-readable media may be any available media that canbe accessed by the client devices 102. The computer-readable media mayinclude both volatile and nonvolatile media, and removable andnon-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, thecomputer-readable media may comprise computer-storage media andcommunication media. The local storage 116 may include additional oralternative components, such as those described herein with respect tothe memory 604 of FIG. 6. In accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure, portions of the client application 108 may be storedin the local storage 116. In some embodiments, application sessiondata—such as a list of documents, attenuation data, a list of users(which may include a role for one or more users), a time of day, a topicfor the active event, and/or other contextual data—may be stored in thelocal storage 116.

The application server(s) 104 may include host application 118 andcommunication interface 112C. The host application 118 may correspond tothe client applications 108. However, rather than performingdocument-sharing conference operations locally on client devices 102,the host application 118 may perform the document-sharing conferenceoperations described herein on the application servers 104 andcommunicate the one or more documents with one or more layers to theclient devices 102. As described above, the communications interface112C may include one or more components and features for communicatingacross one or more networks. Although only a few components and/orfeatures of the application server(s) 104 are illustrated in FIG. 1,this is not intended to be limiting. For example, the applicationserver(s) 104 may include additional or alternative components, such asthose described below with respect to the example content streamingsystem 500 of FIG. 5, the example computing device 600 of FIG. 6, and/orthe example data center 700 of FIG. 7.

The application server(s) 104 may include an encryption/certificationapplication 120. The encryption/certification application 120 mayencrypt one or more documents that are received from the one or moreclient devices 102 using any of various encryption algorithms andmethods. The encryption may ensure that the document is not changedafter being received. The encryption/certification application 120 mayverify a source or other indication of the genuineness of the document,such as a state court system, a federal court system (using a systemknown as Public Access to Court Electronic Records (“PACER”), agovernmental agency, a business, an individual, or the like. Thecertification application 122 may label the document and/or assignmetadata to the document indicative of the certification. The document,which may be encrypted and/or certified, may then be stored in a remotestorage 124. The document (e.g., a version or copy thereof) may beretrieved from the remote storage 124 by the host application 118, sentto the one or more client devices 102 via the network 106, etc.

The application server(s) 104 may include an analyzation/creationapplication 122 that analyzes one or more documents and creates one ormore resources related to those documents for use by one or more users.Examples of the created resources may be an outline, instructions, alist of questions, background information, or another document. Theresource may be used before the active event (for preparation) and/orduring the active event (to support the user during the event). Theanalyzation/creation application 122 may perform an optical characterrecognition (OCR) on the document to be able to read and search thedocument. The analyzation/creation application 122 may utilize a machinelearning algorithm or other artificial intelligence to at leastpartially generate or complete a set of questions related to thedocument for the user. As an example, the user may input a type of caseas described above, type of deposition, type of witness, and otherinformation about the proceeding (such as shown in FIG. 4A). The systemmay then draw from one or more documents (such as an original complaintthat was filed and is in the list of documents) and/or from otheroutside resources (such as case law, transcripts of similar cases orproceedings, a list of example questions, etc.) to analyze the submitteddocuments. The system may produce a list of key information for thedocument, a list of background, a set of foundational questions (whichmay be specific to a jurisdiction, court, or other entity), a summary ofthe document, or other information.

FIG. 2 shows various versions and/or copies of the electronic documentthat may be received, utilized, saved, encrypted, decrypted, retained,customized, layered, displayed, manipulated, and/or have other functionsperformed thereon. It should be appreciated that the versions and/orcopies discussed herein are only examples to aid understanding of thereader. Various embodiments of the invention may use any combination ofversions and/or copies of the electronic document(s). As used herein,“document” may refer to any set of data, including metadata about thatset of data. The “document” may be a representation of a traditionalphysical document, a presentation, a spreadsheet, a record, or othercollection of data.

An original version 200 may be received from a source computing device.The original version may be an electronically created document, ascanned version of a physical document, or other electronic file. Theoriginal version 200 may be in the form received from the sourcecomputing device, along with the original received metadata. A masterversion 202 may be created and/or designated based at least in part onthe original version 200. The master version may include a new set ofmaster metadata (which may be based at least in part on the originalreceived metadata).

One or more user copies may be created from the master version 202, suchas a first user copy 204, a second user copy 206, and/or a third usercopy 208. User copies may be requested by and/or sent to the user deviceprior to an active event. For example, attorneys may access copies ofthe document that will be used at a proceeding before the proceedingbegins such that the user or users may perform any of various tasks.User copies may additionally or alternatively be sent during an activeevent, such as a virtual court hearing. The user copies for before thehearing may be the same or distinct from the user copies of the activeevent.

An active display copy 210 may be shown during an active event, such asa court hearing, deposition, arbitration, or trial. The active displaycopy 210 may be shown across multiple user devices. The active display210 may have various annotations or customizations added thereto fromone or more users, such as highlights. These various annotations orcustomizations may be saved with the electronic document as a permanentdisplay copy 212. The permanent display copy 212 keeps a record of theannotations and/or other annotations that were made during the activeevent. As such, a permanent record of the document as shown and/ormodified during the event may be retained. In some instances more thanone permanent record copy of the document may be shown and retained. Asan example, a first witness may markup the active copy with a firstactive layer that will be retained. A second witness may be shown theactive copy without any layer and create their own second active layerthat will also be independently retained. The permanent display copy 212with the one or more active layers may be encrypted by the encryptionapplication 120.

Layers may be added to one or more versions and/or copies of theelectronic document. Layers provide additional information or presentthe existing information in a certain way. A set of master layers 214may include watermarks, evidence stamps, an evidence number, seals,signature, a document number, a page number, or other designation ofinformation that may be added to the master version of the document.Typically, these master layers 214 may be added during the certificationand/or encryption of the master version. The certification and/orencryption may take place during or before the active event. This maydepend on when the documents are uploaded and/or other rules (such aswhen the document is admitted into evidence). A set of pre-active layers216A-C may be added by the user devices before the active event. Thesemay include notes, questions, talking points, highlights,cross-references, and the like. The user may add the pre-active layerduring preparation for the active event, so as to assist the user inaccessing and/or displaying information during the active event. A setof active layers 218A-D may be created and or added during the activeevent. The set of active layers 218A-D may be added to any of variousscreens of the various user devices and/or copies of the electronicdocuments. For example, a user may take notes during a deposition, whichinformation may then be saved as a layer. The notes may be displayed tothat user, and to other authorized users, during the deposition.Similarly, various aspects of the document may be highlighted,emphasized, enlarged, or otherwise customized on the active copy of thedocument. This active layer may be displayed to all participants. A setof post-active layers 220 may be created that may be permanently savedwith the document. The set of post-active layers 220 may include the oneor more active layers that were shown to all participants, as a recordof the document as displayed during the active event. The post-activelayers 220 may additionally or alternatively be added after the activeevent.

Other manipulations of the electronic document may also be possible invarious embodiments of the present disclosure. As a first example, thedocument may be signed by one or more users during the active event,such as during a negotiation as an active event. As a second example,the document may be modified or translated during the active event.

Now referring to FIG. 3, each block of method 300, described herein,comprises a computing process that may be performed using anycombination of hardware, firmware, and/or software. For instance,various functions may be carried out by a processor executinginstructions stored in memory. The method 300 may also be embodied ascomputer-usable instructions stored on computer storage media. Themethod 300 may be provided by a standalone application, a service orhosted service (standalone or in combination with another hostedservice), or a plug-in to another product, to name a few. In addition,method 300 is described, by way of example, with respect to the systemof FIG. 1. However, this method may additionally or alternatively beexecuted by any one system, or any combination of systems, including,but not limited to, those described herein.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram showing a method 300 for document-sharingconferencing, suitable for use in implementing some embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In the example of FIG. 3, steps performed by aserver (such as application server 104) are shown on a left side of thefigure, and steps performed by a user device (such as client devices102) are shown on a right side of the figure. The method 300, at Step302, includes receiving an electronic document as an original version200. The original version 200 may be sent from a source computingdevice, such as one of the user devices. The user device may send theoriginal version 200 before the beginning of the active event, such thatthe original version 200 may be fully uploaded and ready at thebeginning of the active event. In some instances, another sourcecomputing device may send the original version 200, such as an originalcreator or custodian of the electronic document.

The method 300, at Step 304, includes storing a master copy 202 of theelectronic document. The step of storing the master copy 202 may includeencrypting the master copy 202 such that the master copy 202 cannot bechanged or altered (either accidentally or intentionally). The step ofstoring the master copy 202 may also include certifying the originalversion 200, such as by authenticating the original version 200 directlyor indirectly.

The method 300, at Step 306, includes a first user device receiving afirst user copy 204. The user may access or request the first user copybefore, during, and/or after the active event (such as the deposition,mediation, or other hearing). This step may include storing the firstuser copy 204 in local storage. In other embodiments, the first usercopy 204 may only be accessible while the user device is connected tothe server, such that there is no local storage permitted.

The method 300, at Step 308, includes displaying the first user copy 204on the first user device. Displaying the first user copy 204 may allowthe user to review the contents, take notes, customize the first usercopy 204, and perform other functions. The method 300, at Step 310,includes receiving and saving a customization. The customization may bea pre-active layer 216 or an active layer 218. The pre-active layer 216and/or the active layer 218 may be shown overlaying or otherwisealtering the display of the first user copy 204.

The method 300, at Step 312, includes receiving an active eventindication, such as an indication that the active event is about tobegin. The active event may be any type of event, such as in which theelectronic document may be displayed to two or more people. The two ormore people may be remote from each other (e.g., a video conference inwhich the electronic document is displayed to two or more participants)or local to each other (e.g., in a in-person courtroom hearing with ascreen to show the electronic document). The method 300, at Step 314,includes displaying an active copy 210 of the electronic document. Theactive copy 210 may be shown alongside the video conference, such thatusers may see the electronic document with the one or more layersthereon, while also seeing one or more other participants. The method300, at Step 316, includes instructing a video conference feed. Themethod 300, at Step 318, includes displaying the video conference feedalong with the active display copy.

The method 300, at Step 320, includes sending an active layer 218 to theserver. The active layer 218 may be sent by one or more user devices. Asan example, the user may select one of the pre-active layers 216 savedbefore the active event to display as an active layer 218 to allparticipants. The active layer 218 may highlight a certain portion ofthe document, or provide some other customization. The method 300, atStep 322, includes distributing the active layer to one or moreadditional user devices. This allows all participants to see the newactive layer 218 during the active event. The method 300, at Step 324,includes saving a post-active layer. The active layer 218 or layers thatwere displayed during the active event may be saved such that a recordexists of what active layers were shown. This may allow for recreationof the active layers, such as in the case of a subsequent active event,such as another hearing, an appeal from the prior hearing, generalrecord keeping, or the like.

Turning to FIGS. 4A-D, example graphical user interfaces that may bedisplayed in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. Theexample graphical user interfaces may show one or more aspects of thepresent disclosure and are intended to convey these concepts to thereader. Other aspects of the invention may not be shown or may bedisplayed in another user interface.

FIG. 4A shows an example case creation interface. In the example legalfield of use, the case creation interface may allow a user, such as anattorney, paralegal, assistant, judge, court clerk, mediator,arbitrator, litigant, witness, or other person to create a case record.A menu panel (shown at left) may include a dashboard, cases,depositions, and/or other resources to which the user has access. Themenu may also provide access to account information, a help center, apayment center, a terms of service statement, and/or other resources towhich the user may have access. For a particular case, the user may bepresented with one or more fields to enter information related to thatcase. This information may be associated with the documents directly orindirectly. For example, the information from the fields may be added orassociated with the documents as metadata. Example fields include a casename, a case number, due dates, case type, court name, party names,attorney names, and other information.

FIG. 4B shows an example document management interface. This exampledocument management interface is related to a deposition of a singlewitness within a case, such as the one created in FIG. 4A. The exampledocument management interface may include information about the activeevent associated, such as a deposition of a certain witness. Thedocument management interface may include information about the witness,a stenographer, and/or other observers. The document managementinterface may further include a listing of personal documents, exhibits,outlines, and other files. The user may be able to add documents, whichmay be treated as original versions 200 of the electronic document. Theuser may select any of various documents to display and customize withone or more layers. The user may also create new documents for notes,outlines, questions, or the like.

FIG. 4C shows an example document sharing video conference interface.The document sharing conference interface may be shown during the activeevent, such as the deposition, arbitration, hearing, or other event. Thevideo conference interface may show one or more video feeds and/or audiofeeds. Additional participants or observers may be watching with neithera video feed nor an audio feed. An active copy 210 of the electronicdocument may be shown to one or more participants or observers. Oneuser, such as an attorney, may ask questions related to the active copy210 of another user, such as a witness. The witness may refer to thedocument in providing answers. The attorney, or other presenter, mayemphasize or show certain portions of the active copy 210. Some usersmay be able to independently scroll through the document, open and closeother documents, and perform other tasks related to documents while theactive copy 210 is being shown.

FIG. 4D shows an example document sharing video conference interfacewith an active layer on an active copy 210 as well as a user-specificdocument. The active layer, such as the highlighting shown, mayemphasize or increase visibility of a section of the active copy 210.

The user may additionally be able to view a user-specific document. Theuser-specific document may be an outline, instructions, a list ofquestions, background information, or another document. The user mayreference the user-specific document during the active event. The userinterface may also present a warning, as shown, to let a user known thata certain action may move another document to be the active document. Inembodiments of the present disclosure, the user-specific document mayhave been at least partially created and/or edited by a machine learningalgorithm or other artificial intelligence, such as theanalyzation/creation application 122 discussed above. Theanalyzation/creation application 122 may produce and/or supplement alist of key information for the document, a list of backgroundinformation, a list of foundational questions for the document, a listof key information from the document, a list of quotes from one or moreexternal documents (such as a complaint) that relate to the currentdocument and/or witness, or provide other information that may be usefulto the attorney or other user.

The user may be presented with other information during the activeevent. As a first example, a user (such as a defending attorney at adeposition) may be presented with a prompt recommending an object to bemade based upon a question being asked by another user (such as adeposing attorney). The prompt may recommend a certain objection beentered into the record, and may provide a basis for the objection. Theprompt may be determined based upon an analysis of the question asrecorded by a speech-to-text algorithm, by a human stenographer, atranscript, or other source. As a second example, a user may bepresented with recommended follow-up questions. The recommended questionmay be based in part on one or more prior answers, on information in oneor more documents, on a list of questions or notes prepared before theactive event (such as illustrated at left in FIG. 4D). As a thirdexample, a user may be presented with a prompt indicative of aconflicting answer being given. The system may know an expected answerto an asked question based upon information in one or more documents.The system may then identify when an answer is given that is contrary toan expected answer. The system may also provide a basis (such as asection of a specific document) in which the original answer was givenand present that to the user, such that the user may impeach the witnessor other participant. As a fourth example, a user may be presented witha prompt indicative of an ethical issue, a potential appeal issue, orother issue that the user may raise or avoid during the active event.

In embodiments of the present disclosure, the system may also decide orprovide a recommendation regarding a disagreement between two or moreusers. The recommendation may analyze past decisions, rules, and otherevidence to determine a likely resolution to the disagreement. Forexample, during a deposition, a disagreement may arise over thepermissibility of a certain question. A first attorney may instruct aclient not to answer the question while a second attorney insists on ananswer. The system may analyze the disagreement and provide arecommendation as to which attorney is likely correct, along with one ormore supporting reasons (such as a rule citation). This may serve as anindependent suggestion to resolve the dispute, without the attorneyshaving to involve an outside decision maker (such as a judge ormediator).

Embodiments of the present disclosure may track success rates, usagerates, types of active events, and other statistics related to a userfor a specific user account. The user (such as an attorney, moderator,arbitrator, expert witness, etc.) may thus advertise or find more workbased at least in part on these tracked statistics. The user may shareother information, such as a calendar of availability, notes, statementsof specialty or interest areas, and the like. The user may furtherutilize the user account to receive and make payments related to theservices rendered and received, respectively.

Example Content Streaming System

Now referring to FIG. 5, FIG. 5 is an example system diagram for acontent streaming system 500, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure. FIG. 5 includes application server(s) 502 (which mayinclude similar components, features, and/or functionality to theexample computing device 600 of FIG. 6), client device(s) 504 (which mayinclude similar components, features, and/or functionality to theexample computing device 600 of FIG. 6), and network(s) 506 (which maybe similar to the network(s) described herein). In some embodiments ofthe present disclosure, the system 500 may be implemented. Theapplication session may correspond to a game streaming application, aremote desktop application, a simulation application (e.g., autonomousor semi-autonomous vehicle simulation), computer aided design (CAD)applications, virtual reality (VR) and/or augmented reality (AR)streaming applications, deep learning applications, and/or otherapplication types.

In the system 500, for an application session, the client device(s) 504may only receive input data in response to inputs to the inputdevice(s), transmit the input data to the application server(s) 502,receive encoded display data from the application server(s) 502, anddisplay the display data on the display 524. As such, the morecomputationally intense computing and processing is offloaded to theapplication server(s) 502 (e.g., rendering—in particular ray or pathtracing—for graphical output of the application session is executed bythe GPU(s) of the game server(s) 502). In other words, the applicationsession is streamed to the client device(s) 504 from the applicationserver(s) 502, thereby reducing the requirements of the client device(s)504 for graphics processing and rendering.

For example, with respect to an instantiation of an application session,a client device 504 may be displaying a frame of the application sessionon the display 524 based on receiving the display data from theapplication server(s) 502. The client device 504 may receive an input toone of the input device(s) and generate input data in response. Theclient device 504 may transmit the input data to the applicationserver(s) 502 via the communication interface 520 and over thenetwork(s) 506 (e.g., the Internet), and the application server(s) 502may receive the input data via the communication interface 518. TheCPU(s) may receive the input data, process the input data, and transmitdata to the GPU(s) that causes the GPU(s) to generate a rendering of theapplication session. For example, the input data may be representativeof a movement of a character of the user in a game session of a gameapplication, firing a weapon, reloading, passing a ball, turning avehicle, etc. The rendering component 512 may render the applicationsession (e.g., representative of the result of the input data) and therender capture component 514 may capture the rendering of theapplication session as display data (e.g., as image data capturing therendered frame of the application session). The rendering of theapplication session may include ray or path-traced lighting and/orshadow effects, computed using one or more parallel processingunits—such as GPUs, which may further employ the use of one or morededicated hardware accelerators or processing cores to perform ray orpath-tracing techniques—of the application server(s) 502. In someembodiments, one or more virtual machines (VMs)—e.g., including one ormore virtual components, such as vGPUs, vCPUs, etc.—may be used by theapplication server(s) 502 to support the application sessions. Theencoder 516 may then encode the display data to generate encoded displaydata and the encoded display data may be transmitted to the clientdevice 504 over the network(s) 506 via the communication interface 518.The client device 504 may receive the encoded display data via thecommunication interface 520 and the decoder 522 may decode the encodeddisplay data to generate the display data. The client device 504 maythen display the display data via the display 524.

Example Computing Device

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example computing device(s) 600 suitablefor use in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure.Computing device 600 may include an interconnect system 602 thatdirectly or indirectly couples the following devices: memory 604, one ormore central processing units (CPUs) 606, one or more graphicsprocessing units (GPUs) 608, a communication interface 610, input/output(I/O) ports 612, input/output components 614, a power supply 616, one ormore presentation components 618 (e.g., display(s)), and one or morelogic units 620. In at least one embodiment, the computing device(s) 600may comprise one or more virtual machines (VMs), and/or any of thecomponents thereof may comprise virtual components (e.g., virtualhardware components). For non-limiting examples, one or more of the GPUs608 may comprise one or more vGPUs, one or more of the CPUs 606 maycomprise one or more vCPUs, and/or one or more of the logic units 620may comprise one or more virtual logic units. As such, a computingdevice(s) 600 may include discrete components (e.g., a full GPUdedicated to the computing device 600), virtual components (e.g., aportion of a GPU dedicated to the computing device 600), or acombination thereof.

Although the various blocks of FIG. 6 are shown as connected via theinterconnect system 602 with lines, this is not intended to be limitingand is for clarity only. For example, in some embodiments, apresentation component 618, such as a display device, may be consideredan I/O component 614 (e.g., if the display is a touch screen). Asanother example, the CPUs 606 and/or GPUs 608 may include memory (e.g.,the memory 604 may be representative of a storage device in addition tothe memory of the GPUs 608, the CPUs 606, and/or other components). Inother words, the computing device of FIG. 6 is merely illustrative.Distinction is not made between such categories as “workstation,”“server,” “laptop,” “desktop,” “tablet,” “client device,” “mobiledevice,” “hand-held device,” “game console,” “electronic control unit(ECU),” “virtual reality system,” and/or other device or system types,as all are contemplated within the scope of the computing device of FIG.6.

The interconnect system 602 may represent one or more links or busses,such as an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, or a combinationthereof. The interconnect system 602 may include one or more bus or linktypes, such as an industry standard architecture (ISA) bus, an extendedindustry standard architecture (EISA) bus, a video electronics standardsassociation (VESA) bus, a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus, aperipheral component interconnect express (PCIe) bus, and/or anothertype of bus or link. In some embodiments, there are direct connectionsbetween components. As an example, the CPU 606 may be directly connectedto the memory 604. Further, the CPU 606 may be directly connected to theGPU 608. Where there is direct, or point-to-point connection betweencomponents, the interconnect system 602 may include a PCIe link to carryout the connection. In these examples, a PCI bus need not be included inthe computing device 600.

The memory 604 may include any of a variety of computer-readable media.The computer-readable media may be any available media that may beaccessed by the computing device 600. The computer-readable media mayinclude both volatile and nonvolatile media, and removable andnon-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, thecomputer-readable media may comprise computer-storage media andcommunication media.

The computer-storage media may include both volatile and nonvolatilemedia and/or removable and non-removable media implemented in any methodor technology for storage of information such as computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, and/or other data types.For example, the memory 604 may store computer-readable instructions(e.g., that represent a program(s) and/or a program element(s), such asan operating system. Computer-storage media may include, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which may be used to storethe desired information and which may be accessed by computing device600. As used herein, computer storage media does not comprise signalsper se.

The computer storage media may embody computer-readable instructions,data structures, program modules, and/or other data types in a modulateddata signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism andincludes any information delivery media. The term “modulated datasignal” may refer to a signal that has one or more of itscharacteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode informationin the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, the computerstorage media may include wired media such as a wired network ordirect-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF,infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of any of the aboveshould also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The CPU(s) 606 may be configured to execute at least some of thecomputer-readable instructions to control one or more components of thecomputing device 600 to perform one or more of the methods and/orprocesses described herein. The CPU(s) 606 may each include one or morecores (e.g., one, two, four, eight, twenty-eight, seventy-two, etc.)that are capable of handling a multitude of software threadssimultaneously. The CPU(s) 606 may include any type of processor, andmay include different types of processors depending on the type ofcomputing device 600 implemented (e.g., processors with fewer cores formobile devices and processors with more cores for servers). For example,depending on the type of computing device 600, the processor may be anAdvanced RISC Machines (ARM) processor implemented using ReducedInstruction Set Computing (RISC) or an x86 processor implemented usingComplex Instruction Set Computing (CISC). The computing device 600 mayinclude one or more CPUs 606 in addition to one or more microprocessorsor supplementary co-processors, such as math co-processors.

In addition to or alternatively from the CPU(s) 606, the GPU(s) 608 maybe configured to execute at least some of the computer-readableinstructions to control one or more components of the computing device600 to perform one or more of the methods and/or processes describedherein. One or more of the GPU(s) 608 may be an integrated GPU (e.g.,with one or more of the CPU(s) 606 and/or one or more of the GPU(s) 608may be a discrete GPU. In embodiments, one or more of the GPU(s) 608 maybe a coprocessor of one or more of the CPU(s) 606. The GPU(s) 608 may beused by the computing device 600 to render graphics (e.g., 3D graphics)or perform general purpose computations. For example, the GPU(s) 608 maybe used for General-Purpose computing on GPUs (GPGPU). The GPU(s) 608may include hundreds or thousands of cores that are capable of handlinghundreds or thousands of software threads simultaneously. The GPU(s) 608may generate pixel data for output images in response to renderingcommands (e.g., rendering commands from the CPU(s) 606 received via ahost interface). The GPU(s) 608 may include graphics memory, such asdisplay memory, for storing pixel data or any other suitable data, suchas GPGPU data. The display memory may be included as part of the memory604. The GPU(s) 608 may include two or more GPUs operating in parallel(e.g., via a link). The link may directly connect the GPUs (e.g., usingNVLINK) or may connect the GPUs through a switch (e.g., using NVSwitch).When combined together, each GPU 608 may generate pixel data or GPGPUdata for different portions of an output or for different outputs (e.g.,a first GPU for a first image and a second GPU for a second image). EachGPU may include its own memory, or may share memory with other GPUs.

In addition to or alternatively from the CPU(s) 606 and/or the GPU(s)608, the logic unit(s) 620 may be configured to execute at least some ofthe computer-readable instructions to control one or more components ofthe computing device 600 to perform one or more of the methods and/orprocesses described herein. In embodiments, the CPU(s) 606, the GPU(s)608, and/or the logic unit(s) 620 may discretely or jointly perform anycombination of the methods, processes and/or portions thereof. One ormore of the logic units 620 may be part of and/or integrated in one ormore of the CPU(s) 606 and/or the GPU(s) 608 and/or one or more of thelogic units 620 may be discrete components or otherwise external to theCPU(s) 606 and/or the GPU(s) 608. In embodiments, one or more of thelogic units 620 may be a coprocessor of one or more of the CPU(s) 606and/or one or more of the GPU(s) 608.

Examples of the logic unit(s) 620 include one or more processing coresand/or components thereof, such as Tensor Cores (TCs), Tensor ProcessingUnits(TPUs), Pixel Visual Cores (PVCs), Vision Processing Units (VPUs),Graphics Processing Clusters (GPCs), Texture Processing Clusters (TPCs),Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), Tree Traversal Units (TTUs), ArtificialIntelligence Accelerators (AIAs), Deep Learning Accelerators (DLAs),Arithmetic-Logic Units (ALUs), Application-Specific Integrated Circuits(ASICs), Floating Point Units (FPUs), input/output (I/O) elements,peripheral component interconnect (PCI) or peripheral componentinterconnect express (PCIe) elements, and/or the like.

The communication interface 610 may include one or more receivers,transmitters, and/or transceivers that enable the computing device 600to communicate with other computing devices via an electroniccommunication network, included wired and/or wireless communications.The communication interface 610 may include components and functionalityto enable communication over any of a number of different networks, suchas wireless networks (e.g., Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE,ZigBee, etc.), wired networks (e.g., communicating over Ethernet orInfiniBand), low-power wide-area networks (e.g., LoRaWAN, SigFox, etc.),and/or the Internet.

The I/O ports 612 may enable the computing device 600 to be logicallycoupled to other devices including the I/O components 614, thepresentation component(s) 618, and/or other components, some of whichmay be built in to (e.g., integrated in) the computing device 600.Illustrative I/O components 614 include a microphone, mouse, keyboard,joystick, game pad, game controller, satellite dish, scanner, printer,wireless device, etc. The I/O components 614 may provide a natural userinterface (NUI) that processes air gestures, voice, or otherphysiological inputs generated by a user. In some instances, inputs maybe transmitted to an appropriate network element for further processing.An NUI may implement any combination of speech recognition, stylusrecognition, facial recognition, biometric recognition, gesturerecognition both on screen and adjacent to the screen, air gestures,head and eye tracking, and touch recognition (as described in moredetail below) associated with a display of the computing device 600. Thecomputing device 600 may be include depth cameras, such as stereoscopiccamera systems, infrared camera systems, RGB camera systems, touchscreentechnology, and combinations of these, for gesture detection andrecognition. Additionally, the computing device 600 may includeaccelerometers or gyroscopes (e.g., as part of an inertia measurementunit (IMU)) that enable detection of motion. In some examples, theoutput of the accelerometers or gyroscopes may be used by the computingdevice 600 to render immersive augmented reality or virtual reality.

The power supply 616 may include a hard-wired power supply, a batterypower supply, or a combination thereof. The power supply 616 may providepower to the computing device 600 to enable the components of thecomputing device 600 to operate.

The presentation component(s) 618 may include a display (e.g., amonitor, a touch screen, a television screen, a heads-up-display (HUD),other display types, or a combination thereof), speakers, and/or otherpresentation components. The presentation component(s) 618 may receivedata from other components (e.g., the GPU(s) 608, the CPU(s) 606, etc.),and output the data (e.g., as an image, video, sound, etc.).

Example Data Center

FIG. 7 illustrates an example data center 700 that may be used in atleast one embodiments of the present disclosure. The data center 700 mayinclude a data center infrastructure layer 710, a framework layer 720, asoftware layer 730, and/or an application layer 740.

As shown in FIG. 7, the data center infrastructure layer 710 may includea resource orchestrator 712, grouped computing resources 714, and nodecomputing resources (“node C.R.s”) 716(1)-716(N), where “N” representsany whole, positive integer. In at least one embodiment, node C.R.s716(1)-716(N) may include, but are not limited to, any number of centralprocessing units (CPUs) or other processors (including accelerators,field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), graphics processors or graphicsprocessing units (GPUs), etc.), memory devices (e.g., dynamic read-onlymemory), storage devices (e.g., solid state or disk drives), networkinput/output (NW I/O) devices, network switches, virtual machines (VMs),power modules, and/or cooling modules, etc. In some embodiments, one ormore node C.R.s from among node C.R.s 716(1)-716(N) may correspond to aserver having one or more of the above-mentioned computing resources. Inaddition, in some embodiments, the node C.R.s 716(1)-7161(N) may includeone or more virtual components, such as vGPUs, vCPUs, and/or the like,and/or one or more of the node C.R.s 716(1)-716(N) may correspond to avirtual machine (VM).

In at least one embodiment, grouped computing resources 714 may includeseparate groupings of node C.R.s 716 housed within one or more racks(not shown), or many racks housed in data centers at variousgeographical locations (also not shown). Separate groupings of nodeC.R.s 716 within grouped computing resources 714 may include groupedcompute, network, memory or storage resources that may be configured orallocated to support one or more workloads. In at least one embodiment,several node C.R.s 716 including CPUs, GPUs, and/or other processors maybe grouped within one or more racks to provide compute resources tosupport one or more workloads. The one or more racks may also includeany number of power modules, cooling modules, and/or network switches,in any combination.

The resource orchestrator 722 may configure or otherwise control one ormore node C.R.s 716(1)-716(N) and/or grouped computing resources 714. Inat least one embodiment, resource orchestrator 722 may include asoftware design infrastructure (SDI) management entity for the datacenter 700. The resource orchestrator 722 may include hardware,software, or some combination thereof.

In at least one embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, framework layer 720 mayinclude a job scheduler 732, a configuration manager 734, a resourcemanager 736, and/or a distributed file system 738. The framework layer720 may include a framework to support software 732 of software layer730 and/or one or more application(s) 742 of application layer 740. Thesoftware 732 or application(s) 742 may respectively include web-basedservice software or applications, such as those provided by Amazon WebServices, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure. The framework layer 720 maybe, but is not limited to, a type of free and open-source software webapplication framework such as Apache Spark™ (hereinafter “Spark”) thatmay utilize distributed file system 738 for large-scale data processing(e.g., “big data”). In at least one embodiment, job scheduler 732 mayinclude a Spark driver to facilitate scheduling of workloads supportedby various layers of data center 700. The configuration manager 734 maybe capable of configuring different layers such as software layer 730and framework layer 720 including Spark and distributed file system 738for supporting large-scale data processing. The resource manager 736 maybe capable of managing clustered or grouped computing resources mappedto or allocated for support of distributed file system 738 and jobscheduler 732. In at least one embodiment, clustered or groupedcomputing resources may include grouped computing resource 714 at datacenter infrastructure layer 710. The resource manager 1036 maycoordinate with resource orchestrator 712 to manage these mapped orallocated computing resources.

In at least one embodiment, software 732 included in software layer 730may include software used by at least portions of node C.R.s716(1)-716(N), grouped computing resources 714, and/or distributed filesystem 738 of framework layer 720. One or more types of software mayinclude, but are not limited to, Internet web page search software,e-mail virus scan software, database software, and streaming videocontent software.

In at least one embodiment, application(s) 742 included in applicationlayer 740 may include one or more types of applications used by at leastportions of node C.R.s 716(1)-716(N), grouped computing resources 714,and/or distributed file system 738 of framework layer 720. One or moretypes of applications may include, but are not limited to, any number ofa genomics application, a cognitive compute, and a machine learningapplication, including training or inferencing software, machinelearning framework software (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, Caffe, etc.),and/or other machine learning applications used in conjunction with oneor more embodiments.

In at least one embodiment, any of configuration manager 734, resourcemanager 736, and resource orchestrator 712 may implement any number andtype of self-modifying actions based on any amount and type of dataacquired in any technically feasible fashion. Self-modifying actions mayrelieve a data center operator of data center 700 from making possiblybad configuration decisions and possibly avoiding underutilized and/orpoor performing portions of a data center.

The data center 700 may include tools, services, software or otherresources to train one or more machine learning models or predict orinfer information using one or more machine learning models according toone or more embodiments described herein. For example, a machinelearning model(s) may be trained by calculating weight parametersaccording to a neural network architecture using software and/orcomputing resources described above with respect to the data center 700.In at least one embodiment, trained or deployed machine learning modelscorresponding to one or more neural networks may be used to infer orpredict information using resources described above with respect to thedata center 700 by using weight parameters calculated through one ormore training techniques, such as but not limited to those describedherein.

In at least one embodiment, the data center 700 may use CPUs,application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), GPUs, FPGAs, and/orother hardware (or virtual compute resources corresponding thereto) toperform training and/or inferencing using above-described resources.Moreover, one or more software and/or hardware resources described abovemay be configured as a service to allow users to train or performinginferencing of information, such as image recognition, speechrecognition, or other artificial intelligence services.

Example Network Environments

Network environments suitable for use in implementing embodiments of thedisclosure may include one or more client devices, servers, networkattached storage (NAS), other backend devices, and/or other devicetypes. The client devices, servers, and/or other device types (e.g.,each device) may be implemented on one or more instances of thecomputing device(s) 600 of FIG. 6—e.g., each device may include similarcomponents, features, and/or functionality of the computing device(s)600. In addition, where backend devices (e.g., servers, NAS, etc.) areimplemented, the backend devices may be included as part of a datacenter 700, an example of which is described in more detail herein withrespect to FIG. 7.

Components of a network environment may communicate with each other viaa network(s), which may be wired, wireless, or both. The network mayinclude multiple networks, or a network of networks. By way of example,the network may include one or more Wide Area Networks (WANs), one ormore Local Area Networks (LANs), one or more public networks such as theInternet and/or a public switched telephone network (PSTN), and/or oneor more private networks. Where the network includes a wirelesstelecommunications network, components such as a base station, acommunications tower, or even access points (as well as othercomponents) may provide wireless connectivity.

Compatible network environments may include one or more peer-to-peernetwork environments—in which case a server may not be included in anetwork environment—and one or more client-server networkenvironments—in which case one or more servers may be included in anetwork environment. In peer-to-peer network environments, functionalitydescribed herein with respect to a server(s) may be implemented on anynumber of client devices.

In at least one embodiment, a network environment may include one ormore cloud-based network environments, a distributed computingenvironment, a combination thereof, etc. A cloud-based networkenvironment may include a framework layer, a job scheduler, a resourcemanager, and a distributed file system implemented on one or more ofservers, which may include one or more core network servers and/or edgeservers. A framework layer may include a framework to support softwareof a software layer and/or one or more application(s) of an applicationlayer. The software or application(s) may respectively include web-basedservice software or applications. In embodiments, one or more of theclient devices may use the web-based service software or applications(e.g., by accessing the service software and/or applications via one ormore application programming interfaces (APIs)). The framework layer maybe, but is not limited to, a type of free and open-source software webapplication framework such as that may use a distributed file system forlarge-scale data processing (e.g., “big data”).

A cloud-based network environment may provide cloud computing and/orcloud storage that carries out any combination of computing and/or datastorage functions described herein (or one or more portions thereof).Any of these various functions may be distributed over multiplelocations from central or core servers (e.g., of one or more datacenters that may be distributed across a state, a region, a country, theglobe, etc.). If a connection to a user (e.g., a client device) isrelatively close to an edge server(s), a core server(s) may designate atleast a portion of the functionality to the edge server(s). Acloud-based network environment may be private (e.g., limited to asingle organization), may be public (e.g., available to manyorganizations), and/or a combination thereof (e.g., a hybrid cloudenvironment).

The client device(s) may include at least some of the components,features, and functionality of the example computing device(s) 600described herein with respect to FIG. 6. By way of example and notlimitation, a client device may be embodied as a Personal Computer (PC),a laptop computer, a mobile device, a smartphone, a tablet computer, asmart watch, a wearable computer, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), anMP3 player, a virtual reality headset, a Global Positioning System (GPS)or device, a video player, a video camera, a surveillance device orsystem, a vehicle, a boat, a flying vessel, a virtual machine, a drone,a robot, a handheld communications device, a hospital device, a gamingdevice or system, an entertainment system, a vehicle computer system, anembedded system controller, a remote control, an appliance, a consumerelectronic device, a workstation, an edge device, any combination ofthese delineated devices, or any other suitable device.

The disclosure may be described in the general context of computer codeor machine-useable instructions, including computer-executableinstructions such as program modules, being executed by a computer orother machine, such as a personal data assistant or other handhelddevice. Generally, program modules including routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, etc., refer to code that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Thedisclosure may be practiced in a variety of system configurations,including hand-held devices, consumer electronics, general-purposecomputers, more specialty computing devices, etc. The disclosure mayalso be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks areperformed by remote-processing devices that are linked through acommunications network.

As used herein, a recitation of “and/or” with respect to two or moreelements should be interpreted to mean only one element, or acombination of elements. For example, “element A, element B, and/orelement C” may include only element A, only element B, only element C,element A and element B, element A and element C, element B and elementC, or elements A, B, and C. In addition, “at least one of element A orelement B” may include at least one of element A, at least one ofelement B, or at least one of element A and at least one of element B.Further, “at least one of element A and element B” may include at leastone of element A, at least one of element B, or at least one of elementA and at least one of element B.

The subject matter of the present disclosure is described withspecificity herein to meet statutory requirements. However, thedescription itself is not intended to limit the scope of thisdisclosure. Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimedsubject matter might also be embodied in other ways, to includedifferent steps or combinations of steps similar to the ones describedin this document, in conjunction with other present or futuretechnologies. Moreover, although the terms “step” and/or “block” may beused herein to connote different elements of methods employed, the termsshould not be interpreted as implying any particular order among orbetween various steps herein disclosed unless and except when the orderof individual steps is explicitly described.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computerized method comprising: acquiring anelectronic document; saving the electronic document; receiving an activeevent indication; instructing the electronic document to be displayed onone or more displays during an active event; receiving an active layerfor the electronic document; instructing the active layer to bedisplayed on the electronic document during the active event; and savingthe active layer with the electronic document.
 2. The computerizedmethod of claim 1, wherein the step of saving the electronic documentincludes encrypting the electronic document.
 3. The computerized methodof claim 1, wherein the step of saving the electronic document includescertifying the electronic document from a source.
 4. The computerizedmethod of claim 1, wherein the active event is selected from the groupconsisting of a court hearing, a deposition, an arbitration, amediation, and a trial.
 5. The computerized method of claim 1, whereinthe active layer includes a highlighting of a text portion of theelectronic document.
 6. The computerized method of claim 1, furthercomprising: instructing a video conference feed to be displayed with theelectronic document during the active event.
 7. The computerized methodof claim 1, wherein the active layer is displayed to at least oneparticipant of the video conference.
 8. A computerized methodcomprising: receiving a user copy of an electronic document; displayingthe first user copy on a display; receiving, via an input, acustomization of the electronic document; displaying a video conferencealong with the electronic document; displaying the customization on theelectronic document; sending the customization to a server such that theserver may distribute the customization to one or more participants; andstoring a local copy of the electronic document and the customization.9. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the video conferencecorresponds to an active event selected from the group consisting of acourt hearing, a deposition, an arbitration, a mediation, and a trial.10. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the customizationincludes a highlighting of a text portion of the electronic document.11. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the customization is apre-active layer created before the displaying of the video conference.12. The computerized method of claim 8, wherein the customization is anactive layer created during the displaying of the video conference. 13.The computerized method of claim 8, further comprising: presenting, onthe display, an indication of a prompt determined by analysis of one ormore electronic documents, wherein the analysis identified aninconsistency between a spoken answer in the video conference and aportion of the one or more electronic documents.
 14. A systemcomprising: a server including a non-transitory computer readablestorage medium having a computer program stored thereon which, whenexecuted by a server processor, instructs the server processor toperform the following steps: acquiring an electronic document; savingthe electronic document; receiving an active event indication;instructing the electronic document to be displayed on one or moredisplays during an active event; receiving an active layer for theelectronic document; instructing the active layer to be displayed on theelectronic document during the active event; saving the active layerwith the electronic document; and a user device including anon-transitory computer readable storage medium having a computerprogram stored thereon which, when executed by a user device processor,instruct the user device processor to perform the following steps:receiving a user copy of the electronic document; displaying the firstuser copy on a display; receiving, via an input, a customization of theelectronic document; displaying a video conference along with theelectronic document; displaying the customization on the electronicdocument; sending the customization to a server such that the server maydistribute the customization to one or more participants; and storing alocal copy of the electronic document and the customization.
 15. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the step of saving the electronic documentincludes encrypting the electronic document.
 16. The system of claim 14,wherein the step of saving the electronic document includes certifyingthe electronic document from a source.
 17. The system of claim 14,wherein the active event is selected from the group consisting of acourt hearing, a deposition, an arbitration, a mediation, and a trial.18. The system of claim 14, wherein the active layer includes ahighlighting of a text portion of the electronic document.
 19. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein the customization is a pre-active layercreated before the displaying of the video conference.
 20. The system ofclaim 14, wherein the customization is an active layer created duringthe displaying of the video conference.